Stripe-Backed Stablecoin Infrastructure Company Bridge Granted Conditional Approval by US OCC

BlockBeats News, February 18, Bridge announced on Tuesday that it has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank. This means that Bridge National Trust Bank will be able to issue stablecoins, custody digital assets, and manage reserve assets under federal oversight.

This marks a key step in Bridge's positioning in the blockchain payments sector since its $1.1 billion acquisition by Stripe in 2024. Bridge stated that this approval establishes its ability to build digital dollar products for businesses, fintech firms, crypto companies, and traditional financial institutions within the federal framework.

Bridge stated that its system already complies with the compliance standards set by last year's GENIUS Act. Although the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC have not yet issued the specific implementation regulations for the Act, the relevant processes are underway.

Bridge is one of the increasingly many companies seeking to build stablecoin products within the federal regulatory framework. In December last year, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BitGo all received similar conditional approvals from the OCC; Erebor Bank also obtained a conditional national bank charter in October last year. Bridge submitted its application in October last year, according to OCC records, and it was approved last week.

Currently, through Stripe's Open Issuance platform, Bridge provides stablecoin issuance technology support for products such as Phantom's CASH and MetaMask's mUSD.

The OCC has not yet announced a timetable for final approval.